Plutarch Quotes
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Prosperity is no just scale; adversity is the only balance to weigh friends.
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The process may seem strange and yet it is very true. I did not so much gain the knowledge of things by the words, as words by the experience I had of things.
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Gout is not relieved by a fine shoe nor a hangnail by a costly ring nor migraine by a tiara.
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What is bigger than an elephant? But this also is become man's plaything, and a spectacle at public solemnities; and it learns to skip, dance, and kneel.
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Anacharsis coming to Athens, knocked at Solon's door, and told him that he, being a stranger, was come to be his guest, and contract a friendship with him; and Solon replying, 'It is better to make friends at home,' Anacharsis replied, 'Then you that are at home make friendship with me.'
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Diogenes the Cynic, when a little before his death he fell into a slumber, and his physician rousing him out of it asked him whether anything ailed him, wisely answered, 'Nothing, sir; only one brother anticipates another,-Sleep before Death.'
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Nothing can produce so great a serenity of life as a mind free from guilt and kept untainted, not only from actions, but purposes that are wicked. By this means the soul will be not only unpolluted but also undisturbed. The fountain will run clear and unsullied.
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God alone is entirely exempt from all want of human virtues, that which needs least is the most absolute and divine.
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Being summoned by the Athenians out of Sicily to plead for his life, Alcibiades absconded, saying that that criminal was a fool who studied a defence when he might fly for it.
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From Themistocles began the saying, 'He is a second Hercules.'
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By the study of their biographies, we receive each man as a guest into our minds, and we seem to understand their character as the result of a personal acquaintance, because we have obtained from their acts the best and most important means of forming an opinion about them. "What greater pleasure could'st thou gain than this?" What more valuable for the elevation of our own character?
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Valour, however unfortunate, commands great respect even from enemies: but the Romans despise cowardice, even though it be prosperous.
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About Pontus there are some creatures of such an extempore being that the whole term of their life is confined within the space of a day; for they are brought forth in the morning, are in the prime of their existence at noon, grow old at night, and then die.
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An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.
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As geographers, Sosius, crowd into the edges of their maps parts of the world which they do not know about, adding notes in the margin to the effect that beyond this lies nothing but sandy deserts full of wild beasts, and unapproachable bogs.
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Good fortune will elevate even petty minds, and give them the appearance of a certain greatness and stateliness, as from their high place they look down upon the world; but the truly noble and resolved spirit raises itself, and becomes more conspicuous in times of disaster and ill fortune.
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He preferred an honest man that wooed his daughter, before a rich man. 'I would rather,' said Themistocles, 'have a man that wants money than money that wants a man.'
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When the strong box contains no more both friends and flatterers shun the door.
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Marius said, 'I see the cure is not worth the pain.'
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It is a difficult thing for a man to resist the natural necessity of mortal passions.
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Our nature holds so much envy and malice that our pleasure in our own advantages is not so great as our distress at others'.
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I see the cure is not worth the pain.
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Someone praising a man for his foolhardy bravery, Cato, the elder, said, ''There is a wide difference between true courage and a mere contempt of life.
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Lampis, the sea commander, being asked how he got his wealth, answered, 'My greatest estate I gained easily enough, but the smaller slowly and with much labour.'